Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday that Mali's military, its Russian allies and armed opposition groups are all committing serious violations of the laws of war, and that international organisations and governments are largely standing by. In a new report, the New York-based rights organisation urged the African Union's Peace and Security Council to take urgent action to prevent further atrocities in the West African country.

HRW said Mali's army and the Russia-controlled Africa Corps, the successor to the Wagner Group paramilitaries, have killed and wounded scores of civilians in attacks and in custody. The report is based on interviews with 30 people in central and northern Mali between July 30 and September 20, including activists, community leaders, journalists and a Malian soldier. It documents two apparently indiscriminate military drone strikes: one partially destroyed a health centre in Talhandak village in the northern Kidal region in July, and another hit a market in Tombonkore in central Mali in August, killing six civilians and injuring at least 20. HRW also said soldiers shot dead five girls during a counter-insurgency operation in the central Segou region in mid-July, and that allied Dozo militiamen, traditional hunters who fight alongside the army, killed three civilians in the Mopti region, all with impunity. The group said it wrote to Mali's defence minister on August 5 but received no reply.

Armed groups are also accused of abuses. HRW said fighters from JNIM, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated coalition, and the mainly Tuareg separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) attacked a military convoy in Tabrichat, in the Gao region, in July and then tortured and executed at least 19 captured soldiers. JNIM acknowledged that prisoners were killed but denied ordering it; the FLA acknowledged clashes with the army and Russians but denied executing soldiers.

The violence continues. Security and community sources told AFP that more than 40 civilians were killed over the weekend in attacks by armed men on camps in the northeastern Menaka region. The assailants reportedly arrived on motorcycles and targeted camps mainly housing members of the Daoussahak community, whose executive bureau blamed the Islamic State group.

Mali has been gripped by a security crisis since 2012, pitting the army and its Russian partners against jihadist fighters, Tuareg separatists and criminal gangs. The junta, which took power in back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, has turned to Russia for military support. Abuses by the army and its paramilitary partners have been extensively documented before. HRW's call for African Union action underscores concern that civilians in central and northern Mali remain exposed to violence from all sides, with little accountability.